VOICE OF THE PEOPLE | JUNE 13, 2015

Valerie Suidgeest and Sheree Fitch of the River John Save Our School committee present their proposal to the Chignecto Central Regional School Board. The board ended up closing the school, along with ones in Maitland and Wentworth. (STAFF / File)

Communities rallied together to try to save the schools, to no avail. It just isn’t economical to keep the schools open. But perhaps the school board and the minister of education should take a more long-term view. What’s really not economical is families leaving our rural areas because there are no schools there, and families being deterred from moving to our rural areas for the same reason.

Rural brain drain is a real problem in Nova Scotia, and taking away accessible schooling only exacerbates that. Places like Maitland, River John and Wentworth are worth our investment. But if the school board and the government don’t believe that, how will we?

Hannah Main, Truro

Fracking fix is in at EPA

While The Chronicle Herald dutifully informed us that the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report concluded that fracking causes no problem with local ground water (June 10 story), it failed to examine the content and actual source of the report itself.

The EPA did no new studies while compiling this report over the past five years. Instead, it examined second- and third-hand reports that were created, en masse, by the oil companies themselves.

Some in the U.S. have long viewed these reports as not only totally unreliable but completely slanted in the favour of further exploration. No independent studies were used in the drawing of this fictitious conclusion. When it was released to the American media, these fatal shortcomings were quickly pointed out and, at this point, are being viewed as simply another vain attempt by the oil companies to plunder and spoil the environment for their own profit.

Ronald Maron, Wallace

The Ivany cudgel

Re: “CBU prof upset at ‘pressure’ from mayor’s office” (June 10). So the CBRM mayor’s spokeswoman, Christina Lamey, complained to the Cape Breton University business school dean about Prof. Doug Lionais’s criticism of the municipality’s actions. She accused Lionais of, among other things, being at odds with the Ivany report. I note that the Ivany report is actually being used for the main purpose for which it was intended: to be rolled up to whack anyone with a critical voice upside the head, academic freedom or no.

Let’s check the record. Our efficiency programs led the nation in energy conservation: benefited thousands of people with home upgrades, saved hundreds of GWh, or 6.6 per cent of our demand for electricity, and created hundreds of full-time green jobs and huge reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.

Yet NSP isn’t an enthusiastic supporter of EfficiencyOne. Maybe it’s because the power company, as a business — virtually a monopoly — wants to sell as much electricity as possible, while EfficiencyOne’s mandate is the direct opposite.

It’s an odd situation indeed for a business to have a voice in determining funding for its competitor! The question is: whose interests are primary — shareholders of NSP or ratepayers of Nova Scotia?

Clearly, energy efficiency is an excellent way to mitigate climate change, and climate change must be a central concern. To forward these twin goals, we can support EfficiencyOne by attending the Utility and Review Board hearing on its funding on Monday, June 15 at 7 p.m., Office of the Board, 1601 Lower Water St., Halifax.

Under the guise of environmental protection, they use the hackneyed claim of pricing “carbon,” a particulate (subtly implying the black soot and smog seen over some cities), when the real purpose is pricing carbon dioxide, an invisible, odourless, and harmless gas that makes up less than 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere and is used mainly as plant food worldwide.

Further, the authors go on to suggest that developing another tax will benefit us. When has adding a tax to an already overtaxed society ever proven to be a benefit to the working person? They suggest that this would generate revenue. Whenever the government generates revenue, it by necessity must come out of the pockets of the taxpayers, as government has no money of its own. Companies taxed in any manner simply pass their increased costs on to the consumers. Is this what we want?

The increase in CO2 production has overall been very positive for our environment with satellite data showing our deserts to be “greening,” resulting in more usable and productive land for human use.

Don’t be fooled by faux self-proclaimed environmentalists.

Dale Mullen, Hebron

Wage hike would backfire

The report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Nova Scotia suggests that Haligonians would require $20.10 per hour in order to achieve a reasonable quality of life. Morally, this sounds wonderful; in fact, people who had read this report might be thinking, “Why not replace the current minimum wage into $20.10 per hour, so that everyone can live a stress-free life?”

However, economically, this is not going to work. Let me explain this with a simple hypothetical example. Suppose I own a small business with four full-time staff, each earning current minimum wage in Halifax. As a business owner, my first priority is to make profit and then satisfy consumers with the products so as to maintain a steady demand in the market.

However, the government is very convinced by the CCPA-NS’s report and decides to increase minimum wage from $10.60 to 20.10 per hour. This would result in either downsizing my two staff to balance my profit or increasing the prices of products, which would harm consumers.

In a nutshell, rather than creating a reasonable quality of life, this would increase unemployment, especially among low-skilled workers, and discourage entrepreneurship in the economy. I completely understand the sentiment that we need a higher wage to achieve a good quality of life, as I am also a minimum-wage earner. But put yourselves in small business-owner’s shoes and think rationally because they run Nova Scotia’s economy — not government or unions.

Recently, a restaurateur said that if wages went up, he’d have to close. If the continuing successful future of this individual’s business requires that he must pay wages that put his employees in the poverty class, perhaps he should consider closing.

An OECD report shows that just one per cent of the Canadian and U.S. population keeps getting wealthier while the percentage of workers and families in America who are poverty-stricken is rising. Anyone shopping for food or other necessities see prices rising rapidly. Advanced education is simply out of reach of most workers, so their children can only expect to be in the same pitiful situation when they go to work.

Christine Saulnier of Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives (Nova Scotia) states that for workers and families to ever come close to having a reasonable quality of life, the living wage needs to be $20.10 today and rise with the cost of living.

If the living wage became the minimum wage, someone who worked 35 hours per week for 50 weeks would be paid $35,175; after taxes it would be much less.

Minimum wages should mean the very lowest. That is what minimum means. Too many employers who report enormous profits continue to pay minimum wages and no one stops them. The next time you enter a fast-food franchise or elsewhere, you will be served by someone who deserves better.

Lorne Perry, Dartmouth

Learn about Lyme

At a time when ticks appear to be at an all-time high, partially due to the large amount of snow cover we experienced this winter, knowledge and awareness of these ticks and what they can transmit should be of concern to everyone.

A story was relayed to me recently about a group of Halifax-area 20-somethings who were in New Germany for the weekend. They came in contact with quite a few ticks, but only a very small portion of those in attendance even knew what the ticks were, let alone how to effectively and safely remove them, nor what to watch for. I certainly hope that they all learned more on that weekend and did effective tick checks, especially in all those warm, moist parts of their bodies.

Instead of our regular Lyme Support Group meeting, we will be holding an information meeting, open to the public, to help raise awareness of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases on Monday, June 22, at the Bedford Legion from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The guest speaker is Dr. Ben Boucher who, until March 2013, was the only doctor in the province who actively treated people with tick-borne diseases.

Dr. Boucher recently had a survey undertaken by Corporate Communications to gauge his former patients’ health levels to see if his treatment protocols were effective. The results will be part of his presentation. There will also be an opportunity for a Q&A. Dr. Boucher was the keynote speaker at the Maritime Tick & Tick Vectored Disease Research Conference in Moncton on May 8. His presentation will be similar to the one made there. This would be a very good meeting for those in the medical community to attend, in order to learn more about diagnosis and treatment.

Donna Lugar, Bedford

Quite a mouthful

Your June 1 article on the barber’s vintage chair revived a memory about a sign on the wall of a barbershop during my childhood .

At around age 10, I was allowed to go for a haircut on my own and spent the time waiting for my turn by reading the many signs, notices and mottoes scattered over the walls.

One that held my attention included several big words that I could not pronounce or understand, although they were part of a rhyming four-line verse. Too shy to ask the barber to explain, I told my mother what I could remember of the verse and my need to learn what the two big words in the first line meant.

She said that I should memorize those two words the next time I went for a haircut and spell them for her on my return. It took a big effort on my part to cram them into my head and hold them there all the way home, but I did. I have remembered the whole verse to this day:

Conspicuous expectorations

Do not improve the decorations

Turn your efforts towards the floor

Where you will find a cuspidor

Beth Curry, Truro

Political potshots

The Conservative ads say Justin Trudeau is “not ready.” Continuing with the use of cooking terms, I’d say Stephen Harper is “overdone.” What do you do with something that’s overdone? Toss it out.

June DeLory, Halifax

Obesity’s causes and effects

A body mass index (kg/m2) greater than 30 suggests an individual has obesity, whereas a body mass index between 25 and 29.9 indicates an individual has excess weight (i.e., is “overweight”).

Around the world, the number of individuals with obesity or excess weight rose from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013. In Atlantic Canada, weight problems are rife: for example, our children and youth have the highest obesity rates in Canada.

Excess weight is associated with coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. In 2010, having obesity or excess weight caused an estimated 3.4 million deaths worldwide. Individuals with obesity also face stigma in employment, interpersonal relationships, higher education and health care, and this stigma is linked to poorer mental health (e.g., depression).

Sedentariness, poor diet and lack of sleep are key contributors to having obesity or excess weight. Genetics and hormonal problems (e.g., hypothyroidism) also play a central role; however, unhealthy behaviours (e.g., poor nutrition) are usually required for obesity to manifest.